Guardian Witch
by chocolatedesu
Summary: A Russian girl is kicked out of her home and left to survive by herself in the dark forest. When she dies alone of starvation, Man in the Moon decides to name her Mother Nature. But she refuses the name and becomes...
1. Chapter 1

Guardian Witch

 _Rise of the Guardians_

Chapter 1

* * *

Once upon a time, a widower lived alone with his only daughter, Natasha. Everything seemed fine until the man decided to marry again. With a new mother in the home, the daughter found little time with her father. He was merry and joyful around her stepmother that he often forgot that his daughter needed to be loved too.

One day, the stepmother found no reason to keep the daughter anymore. She decided to kick the girl out when her husband would be intoxicated that night. When the woman succeeded in getting him to drink to his heart's content, she chased the girl out with nothing more than a few mouthfuls of bread and a spare change of cloths.

With all her might, the poor girl ran through the forest in the dark. While running to her good grandmother's house for shelter, she found herself lost in the forest. The dark had made the path look so different, she had missed a turn to her destination. She collapsed in exhaustion under a willow tree and cried.

For days and nights, the girl wandered through the forest. She quickly ran out of bread and tried to fill her constantly empty stomach the berries that she had found on her way. But after choking on a few, she realized that some of the berries she was coming across could be poisonous. She didn't dare eat anymore of them. Her days were filled with effortless tears and empty stomachs. Coming across the same willow, she sat down and cried her last pitiful tear before falling into an eternal sleep.

Yet, her last breath she did not breathed it. A warm voice awoke her from her slumber. She sat up, stomach no longer empty and eyes no longer wet.

"How is this so?" She asked to no one in particular. "I was hungry just a second ago."

"Dear child, the reason you don't feel it so is because you have passed." The warm voice told her.

Natasha sat under the tree, confused of the statement and the origin of the voice. It seemed to ring in her head rather than enter her ears. Upon impulse, the girl found herself looking at the moon.

"I have passed?" She asked it.

"Yes, you have passed your mortal life." The moon spoke in her head. "But do not fear, from now on, you shall live as a spirit of the earth, you are now, Mother Nature."

"Mother Nature." The girl mouthed. An elated feeling filled the girl, but she shook her head, chasing the feeling out of her. The moon, confused at her actions, asked her what was wrong.

"No, I cannot be." Natasha told the moon. "What about my father? What will befall upon my stepmother?" She thought of her stepmother and her deed. She thought of the mistreatment her stepmother had acted upon her. She thought of the days and nights of endless hunger and painful sadness. "Will my stepmother be punished when I become Mother Nature?"

Silence.

"What is it that I have to do?" The girl asked the light in the sky desperately. "I don't want this name!" She shouted towards the night sky.

The moon did not answer.

As pitiful as she was, she continued to cry to the sky. With her life lingering permanently between life and death, the only thing she cared for in the world was revenge against her stepmother.

"As soon as I chose you to become an immortal spirit, everyone you knew had forgotten about you." The moon began to speak once again. "I see that you do not want to be named with the title I have given you, so I will not force it upon you. However, I cannot redo what I have already done. You are now an immortal spirit, your mortal life forgotten completely by the world."

"Why have you done this?" Natasha yelled at the moon. But before it could answer, a lone gray cloud hovered in front of it, blocking the warm light that the moon gave her. The girl got up and ran, to where, she didn't know. Unbeknownst to her, she was moving closer and closer to her home. When she reached the familiar door of her home, she wept. For behind the door, she could hear children's laughter among the voices of her father and stepmother. On instinct, she took a step through the door. In front of her eyes, she could see her father laughing at a small baby boy who had taken a taste of a slice of lemon. Her stepmother was reading a storybook at a young girl around the age of four, a smile adorned the woman's face, one of which the girl had never seen before on her face.

The weeping girl turned and fled the house. The moon was still covered.

No voice came from the sky, instead a voice from the ground in front of her began to speak.

"Little lady, what are you doing weeping here?" The girl looked up and saw a woman with long white hair that was tied up in a braid, her nose was long and pointed, her eyes were completely white, and her skin was pale and wrinkled. Natasha gaped as she saw that the old woman was sitting on a large mortar that seemed to float a few inches above the ground and in her hand she held a pestle of equally large proportions.

"Who are you?" Asked the girl.

"I am Baba Yaga, the witch." The woman answered calmly. "Now what is a spirit like you crying about?"

The girl, seeing no harm in telling her, told the witch of her story. Her stepmother, her empty stomach, the willow, her passing, and the moon. When the girl mentioned the moon, the old woman laughed at the sky. Then she turned to face the young girl once more.

"Let me tell you something, little girl, the moon is unfair. He had done the same to me too. Now, I am nothing but a witch among the living." The witch put her hand on the girl. "Come with me. You'll have your revenge at that ghastly woman. And if you don't you can live an immortal life away from mortal beings."

The girl took the woman's offer and followed the woman back into the forest and into the darkness. When the moon reappeared behind the clouds, he could not find the girl anymore.

* * *

The girl awoke to a cold breeze. She opened her eyes to find herself staring at a skyful of snowflakes falling in front of her. She let out an exasperated sigh, muttering about a winter spirit not being able to choose a better time to let it snow. She brushed herself off the snow that her clothes had caught while she was sleeping and got up. She grabbed the silver-birch broom that sat beside her and began walking towards a dying willow. A few children had crowded around it while she was asleep and were beginning to climb the tree. They continued to play as she sat against the trunk of the tree. One of the kids ran towards her, but past right through her as he began to scramble up the trunk.

"No manners." The girl muttered under her breath. "So noisy."

She heard a scuffle above her and a shriek followed. A soft thump was heard beside her and she turned to see that one of the children had fallen off the tree and seemed to have scraped his arm. She scoffed as the kid began to bawl for his parents. The rest of the children had descended down the tree to aid their hurt friend before they all rushed towards their 'all-knowing' parents to get his wound cleaned up.

The girl hummed in delight by the sudden silence the children had left behind. She leaned her head back and whispered to the tree as if it could hear her.

"Good morning."


	2. Chapter 2

Guardian Witch

 _Rise of the Guardians_

Chapter 2

* * *

If anyone could see her, they would've seen a teenage girl with an eccentric taste in fashion sitting alone on a playground swing, except no one could see her and she wasn't normal. Her choice of clothing gave her a gloomy feel; she wore a black T-shirt with a white skull stuck in the center, she wore a fingerless glove on her right hand, black high-cut converse, and black shorts with a pair of fishnet leggings underneath. Her hair was white with specks of gray, yet her face was without wrinkle, emitting a timeless aura to whoever who would've seen her, her irises were white, making her pupil seemingly smaller than usual. In her left hand, she carried a silver broom. Clearly, she didn't even look like the average human and she wasn't.

"Idem, Ivan!" _Come on, Ivan!_

The girl looked up at the source of the voice. A young Russian boy with blonde hair was waving his hand high above his head, he wore a scarf around his neck and layers of jackets around him to make him look like a human beach ball, his teeth were gapped and his eyes were blue. Another boy, with similar hair color but paler eyes ran up to his side, like the other boy, he was wearing jackets and jackets over himself. Together, they ran towards the playground the girl was in. The wind began to pick up, catching her long white hair and untying her bow in the process. She quickly caught it and tied it back on her head. She huffed in annoyance at the cold weather, no doubt a certain winter spirit was stirring it up unintentionally. She had never met him, but she was sure she wouldn't be able to stand him.

"Tolkat' menya!" _Push me!_

"Nyet! Mne snachala!" _No! Push me first!_

The white haired girl got up from the swing she was sitting on, just before the two children came barrelling through her to sit on the swing. When they reached it, they began to bicker with each other who would go first to sit and who would be pushing. The girl rolled her eyes at the scene. Children were selfish beings. Always wanting and wishing, never thinking or caring. She wondered how a certain Russian man could stand bearing the burden of fulfilling every single one of their wishes. The girl straightened her shirt and began to walk away from the playground.

Down the streets of Tishina she walked. The occasional mortal would walk past her, not knowing she was there. Sometimes, if she felt like it, she would walk through a human on purpose, completely nonchalant to the fact that it reminded her of non-existence in the world. It was an interesting feeling, to have someone pass through you, you would feel their every fiber pass through you and yet at the same time, feel how your every being was not even there.

As much as she enjoyed playing ghost, she hated walking. She soon got bored of it and began to adjust her broom so that she was seated comfortably on top of the object. With a soft kick from the ground, the broom began to ascend from the earth. She climbed higher and higher until she was among the clouds. In comparison from the clouds to the ground below, the air up there was much colder. The cold pricked her skin like needles and the wind pinched every exposed skin on her body. Not that she minded the biting feeling of the cold, she was dead anyway.

(The cold never bothered her anyway. XD)

* * *

She definitely wasn't expecting anyone at home. And she certainly wasn't expecting a walking house with chicken legs to be placed right beside her tree. Certainly, one would be completely flabbergasted at the sight of such an unusual house, but had she not seen it before in numerous occasions before, she would've been. As she neared the site, she could spot a peaking figure behind her willow tree, she knew who it was. She landed beside the monster of a house and walked right past it to meet the hidden figure behind the willow tree.

"It isn't like you to visit me like this." The girl said to the shadow. "What do you want, Kira?"

"Now, wouldn't you like to greet me first? I am your dear sister after all." The shadow stepped out to reveal an old woman with white hair tied up in a braid. She wore a floral print dress, white stockings, and black buckle shoes. "We are Baba Yaga sisters aren't we?" The younger girl shrugged. "Come on, Natasha, don't be like that."

"Whatever." Natasha grumbled. "What are you doing here?"

Kira, the old woman, sighed.

"Well, I guess that's the best I can get out of you." She shook her head. "Anyway, I came for a favor."

"Hmm, you want a favor from me?" The girl raised an eyebrow at the older woman. "Couldn't you have asked our other sister, Darya?"

"Oh, I did, but she told me to come here... like always."

"It must've been something troublesome, otherwise why would she not help you, as always." Natasha told Kira.

"Would _you_ help me with it then?" Kira asked sweetly. Her colorless eyes bored into Natasha's. "After all I've done for you, shouldn't you do something for me?"

The two remained silent. The wind had died down and it was beginning to snow. Kira looked at the sky cautiously before grumbling something about a snow guardian. Natasha took no attention to it and snapped her fingers in front of the older woman.

"Now what could I possibly help you with?" Natasha groaned.

Kira grinned wickedly, showing her iron teeth.

"I'd like you to help me restore someone." Kira stepped closer.

"You know, I don't exactly have any special skills in healing if that's what you're implying." Natasha informed the woman, confusion evident in her voice. But the older woman only laughed.

"No, no, no." The woman chuckled. "Let me explain from the beginning."

"See here, I was enjoying a nice long evening walk when I came across this nice looking forest with this huge clearing. By chance, I had actually found a certain someone's hideout." Kira gleamed in delight. "Do you remember our _dear_ friend, the Bogeyman?

* * *

Far away from the snowy park in Tishina, in the eternally-spring Warren under the surface of Australia, a distraught, seven-foot-tall rabbit paced back and forth. The agitated mammal played with the boomerang in his hand, a habit that he had just acquired a few minutes back after finding out that it was much more painless than chewing on his paws.

He was waiting for someone.

Who, he was not quite sure.

But he had been told that someone was to come and that he would be responsible for them.

Yet no one came.

He was sure that it was today, yet why..?

Something was wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

Guardian Witch

 _Rise of the Guardians_

Chapter 3

* * *

It was another cold day in Burgess, a completely ordinary day according to the people in Burgess. For some odd reason, the cold never bothered to leave them and snow days made sure to visit the town frequently. Only a handful of people knew the reason as to why the small town was so prone to such weather.

The reason?

Burgess was housing a winter spirit.

Unlike the townspeople of Burgess who thought of today as typical, it was quite different for Jack Frost. It was the day his best friend and first believer, Jamie Bennett, would be leaving the town to his college dorm. Being the mature spirit he was, Jack sat on the edge of Jamie's bed, watching the brown-haired teen as he slaved away in his own room doing some last minute packing. Jack was entirely uninterested in helping Jamie speed up the process and was completely determined to make Jamie stay even longer, even if only by a few minutes.

"Who knew you had so much stuff." Jack drawled.

"It'd be great if you could move my stuff into those boxes." Jamie scoffed. He tossed a flattened cardboard box to the winter spirit and pointed to the numerous miscellaneous objects placed precariously on top of each other at the corner of the room. "I'd _really_ appreciate the help."

The white-haired teen caught the object with ease, but instead of helping his dear friend out he simply played with the object before setting it back down on the ground.

"Aw, but it's no fun!" Jack whined. He walked towards Jamie, who was busily sorting away at the stuff in his closet. "Wouldn't you just like to forget about packing for a few minutes for a few hours of a snowball fight?"

"Yes, that would be nice," Jamie mused, "but I'd rather finish the packing."

Jack let out a groan of protest.

"If you're so bored, why don't you make this fun. Isn't that your job, Mr. Guardian of Fun?" The brown-haired boy teased. Then, he stood, a packed box in hand, and passed the package to Jack to tape it up. "Come on, help me here."

"Why couldn't you just stay here?" The winter spirit asked as he began to tape the box shut. Jack already knew the answer to that, but he felt that if he asked enough, Jamie would change his mind. Apparently, he hadn't asked enough.

"I told you already, no." The brown-eyed boy laughed. He reached for the flattened cardboard box that Jack had left on the ground and began to unfold it. "It takes me a full five hours to just drive there, and unlike you, I can't fly."

Just as Jack was about to respond, a knock interrupted him. Before Jamie could answer the door, a young blonde opened the door peaked through it. Her yellow locks hung all the way down to her waist and her fringe partially covered her right eye, curious green eyes landed on the two males, and an excited thrill left her voice.

"Jack! You're here! I knew I heard your voice." Sophie grinned. Jack smiled back and greeted the girl.

"Oh, and Jamie, the truck's here."

"Got it." Jamie answered. "Jack, it would be really nice now if you could help me pack up some the pile over there."

This time, the disgruntled winter spirit complied.

The two Bennetts left the room, hands full of boxes, leaving Jack to his own entertainment.

* * *

Jack leaned against his staff as he gazed upon Jamie's seemingly empty room. Only a few boxes. an emptied-out desk, and a mattress-less bed sat in the room. The two Bennetts were probably having a few words with their mother downstairs, leaving Jack alone. The winter spirit let out a sigh. In all honesty, he was scared of Jamie. Not directly of him, but of the fact that Jamie was growing up. If adults could forget of North, Sandman, or Bunnymund, why not him? Jack had seen it happen. Cupcake, who had turned 19 last year, had already forgotten. In front of their very eyes, she had lost all memory of her friend's and her triumph over Pitch and his nightmares. She had lost sight over the white-haired guardian along with the golden sand-man, who were present for the celebration, as soon as she blew out the candles and went on proving so by walking straight through them. And just a few months ago, the twins, Claude and Caleb, had forgotten as well.

If Jamie's friends could lose their belief in the Guardians, wouldn't Jamie forget one day? What if Jack came to visit Jamie, he would say hi and the boy would never greet back? What if instead of having an animated conversation with each other, Jack would be back to asking answerless questions at a responseless Jamie? What if he ever were to look into Jamie's eyes and find out that his reflection couldn't be seen? His first believer, growing up only to forget about him, if that day were to come, what would Jack do? Call him selfish, but even with the increase of believers throughout the years, he still wanted to keep them. Especially Jamie. Besides, after not being seen or cared for for 300 years, one can feel lonely.

The guardian twirled the staff in his hand before setting it against his shoulder and shoved his other hand into the pocket of his hood. As he brooded silently, he failed to notice Jamie entering the room again with his sister in tow. They watched silently at the doorway as the troubled guardian paced back and forth of the room, still oblivious to the entrance of the two teens. They turned to each other, though highly entertained by Jack's curious behavior, they were concerned for their immortal friend. Jamie was the first to break the silence.

"You know, it's not like I'm leaving forever."

Jack jumped at the sudden statement, he turned towards the voice and saw the two children smiling warmly at him. Jack gave a small smile to Jamie, the teen had always seemed to know what was bothering him. Even though it bothered him, Jack was sometimes grateful for Jamie's growth in maturity.

"It's not like you can't see me anymore." Jamie told him

 _That's not what I'm worried about._ Jack only shrugged. "I know."

Sophie figured that she should give the two some privacy, she whispered something into Jamie's ear before grabbing a few boxes and headed towards the stairs.

"You know, now that I think about it, I really haven't been able to have a good snowball fight." Jamie wondered out loud. He glanced at the winter guardian who had a growing smirk upon his face. "Obviously, now isn't the best time for a snowball fight," the teen continued, "but I wonder who would make a good opponent." Jamie gave Jack a challenging grin, which Jack returned with a scoff.

"Don't act so high and mighty, Jamie." Jack taunted. "You are in the presence of a professional of everything to do with snow and ice."

"I'll be the one who'll throw the gauntlet then." Jamie challenged.

"Don't cry when I win."

"Well, at least I'll have the excuse that I lost to the personification of snow and winter himself." Jamie punched Jack's shoulder lightly.

"I know you're worried about something." Jamie told Jack. "And, I can take a guess at what it is." Jack remained silent. "But if this helps, someone once reminded me that it wasn't easy to forget the moon even if it set behind the horizon."

"So, Jack, don't worry, I doubt I'll ever forget the winter spirit that played with me with enchanted snowballs and beat me in every snowman-building competition." Jamie grinned at his white-haired friend. "Just because I'm going further away doesn't mean I'll forget you that easily."

After a short moment of silence Jack smiled at Jamie. "Honestly, you're growing up too fast." He reached up and messed the brun's hair. "But I guess that's okay."

"Really? Last time I checked, you were furious when I managed to grow past your height. You sure you think it's okay?" Jamie jeered.

"Don't even bring that up." Jack warned. Jamie merely laughed it off.

"Jamie! Hurry up! The truck's gonna leave soon!" Jamie's mom called from downstairs followed by the sound truck's engine starting up.

He went towards the last few boxes in the room before beginning to leave. Jack followed him out.

"I promise, for sure, I won't forget you." Jamie assured him for the last time. Jack smiled, but it was a weak one.

As soon as the last few boxes were loaded onto the truck, teary goodbyes were made and promises of coming for Christmas were established. Jamie gave a quick wink to Jack, mouthing the words _snowball fight_ before getting onto the seat of the truck. Jamie gave one last wave from the window before shrinking back into his seat.

And that was it. Jamie had gone to college.

Jack was about to leave and head back to his lake before Sophie stopped him.

"Jack, over there." She pointed. Jack turned to see where the girl was pointing to find that the sky was decorated with northern lights.

Which meant only one thing, North was calling the Guardians.

* * *

"Something must be really bad for you to call us just weeks before Christmas, North." Jack said as he entered the workshop. Tooth and Sandy nodded their heads agreeing to this. Bunnymund, who was standing quietly beside North remained silent. The rush of getting this year's presents done was obvious as the sound of the Yetis rushing about sounded through the entire workshop. Yet, here was the one in charge of it all, standing in front of them, with only a dark expression covering his face.

"It was not me." North answered. He patted the back of the oversized rabbit beside him. "Bunny, here, has something to say." The Russian man said grimly.

"He told me to call you." North said before motioning to Bunnymund to continue.

"Right." The Easter Bunny began. "So, I was told by the Man in the Moon that he was going to bring someone to the Warren. But that was some days ago. No one has showed up."

"Who was supposed to come?' Tooth asked.

"That's what I want to know." Bunnymund stood taller. "Manny didn't tell me who."

"Is it really that important to know who it was. I'm sure they're just late." Jack drawled. Not knowing what the fuss was really all about. "Maybe they don't like kangaroos." Immediately, the serious expression Bunnymund had had turned into a livid one.

"Rabbit." Bunnymund seethed. The heavy atmosphere around the Guardians from before began to lift as they sighed as the two Guardians began to argue.

"Not convinced." Jack replied snidely.

"Now is no time for fight!" North tried to intrude, but from previous experiences, he knew they weren't going to stop anytime soon.

As the Guardians began to bicker, a blue orb began to creep into sight over the opening in the window. Sandman, being the only one who noticed the moon's appearance, Tooth had suddenly become distracted with a tooth somewhere in South Africa, tried to get the other's attention as silently as possible. Which of course, went unheard. Even when the beams from the window above became more intense, the Guardians still took no notice of it. It was only until Sandy took hold of an unsuspecting and very unfortunate elf and shook it, causing the bell at the top of its hat to let out an obnoxious, high-pitched ring, that his presence was then noticed.

"Finally! He's here!" Bunnymund exclaimed. Sandy only proceeded to facepalm himself. "Now, we can finally get some answers." The overgrown rabbit grumbled.

"Manny." North greeting. "What do you have for us this time?"

The Man in the Moon, as always, made no verbal response. Instead, its light shined more intensely than ever before, causing the Guardians to either squint or look away at the rare ferocity of light Manny was releasing. When the light finally died down, the Guardians turned their focus back to the moon, only to find that it for some reason, looked like it had lost its majestic presence; it looked absent. It was only until an indiscernible cough sounded from behind them that realized what had just happened.

"I apologize for that, but I figured it would be better to explain the situation myself word for word than have you guessing." A stout and suspiciously round man stood. Though his presence seemed somewhat grandiose, his height was only as imposing as Sandy's. The man were a white coat that reached all the way down to his black and white leather shoes, underneath his coat he wore a white dress shirt underneath a silver, buttoned vest and matching colored trousers with a red bow tied around the cuff around his neck. The man was bald with the exception of a few stray hairs that clumped into a single silver curl that protruded from the top of his head. In his left hand, he held a golden staff, its length doubled his height, and perched at the top was a crescent shaped curve.

"And just to make things clear, yes, I am the Man in the Moon."

* * *

Author's Note:

*Gasp* My first author's note! Calm down, chocolate, you had something to say. So, yeah, the first two chapters were more like prologues, so from now on, my chapters will be slightly(?) longer. Which also means updates would be slower. Not a lot of Natasha here, but I'll get there. And to make things clear, I'll be putting a lot of context from both the movie and the books into consideration. I'll also be putting a lot of my own headcannons, so deal with me for this. :P To those who know Man in the Moon from the books, I did use his appearance from the book, but tweaked his color scheme from gold to more of white/silver. I had a lot of conflict with just figuring out what Mim should look like, whether I should follow the book's description or make him look more... handsome... Please don't let it be just me who sees the difficulty in this decision, make him like the original or make him too attractive for his own good. gah. So, yeah, here's chapter 3. And wouldn't mind reviews, it would really help me with developing my story-building and writing skills more.


	4. Chapter 4

Guardian Witch

 _Rise of the Guardians_

Chapter 4

* * *

All the Guardians, but one, gawked at the sight of the entrance of the one and only Manny himself. As everyone remained frozen at their spots, Sandy floated over to short man and wordlessly greeted him. Manny returned the silent greeting and turned to the still shell-shocked group of Guardians.

"Wait! You're the Man in the Moon?" Jack pointed at the short man, a stunned expression painted over his face.

"Hm, I chose this form in belief that none would be surprised by my sudden appearance." Manny mused out loud. "It seems as if I was wrong. Would it be better if I chose another form?" The divine-like man turned to Sandy, notifying that the question was addressed to the golden Guardian, who promptly responded by shaking his head.

A wave of silence washed over the group.

"Crikey."

"I haven't been down here for a while, but desperate times call for desperate measures." Manny said.

"This is about mystery person, da?" North, being one of the first to break out of the shock, asked.

"Yes, I had told her to go straight to Bunnymund." Manny waved over at the Easter Bunny. "I had seen to her that she was going to right direction, but, it seems that she went... missing."

"Who was the sheila?" Bunnymund's curiosity getting the better of his surprise. The rest nodded in agreement, their interest towards the subject piqued.

"Ah... well, this is going to be a little hard to explain." The Man, currently not in the Moon, scratched the back of his head, a sheepish expression painted over his face. "She's Emily Jane Pitchiner."

* * *

After finally sending away Kira and her chicken-legged house, Natasha was able to rest easy. Even after years of knowing the woman, she was still uncomfortable in her presence. No, she wasn't scared of the older Baba Yaga, it was just that being around her gave Natasha a certain itch all over her body.

 _One would think living under her influence for over 300 years, one would at least get used to her strange antics._

Natasha leaned against the willow tree before sliding down to sit on top of the entanglements of its roots. The young witch let out a sigh, the recent memory raced through her head. Was it okay for her to just forget whatever happened? Probably. She had done it before. With a wave of her hand, she made sure that she pushed the memory to the back of her mind, determined to make it an unnecessary memory. It wasn't like it was going to affect her anyway.

She gazed absentmindedly at scene in front of her. It had been nearly twenty years since the park which she called her home had been abandoned by the living. (Something about it being haunted by ghosts.) It was a good change on her part, it meant less noise from those obnoxious kids and less people noticing the mess she and her older sister would make after a fight. Which was exactly what happened. The ground was overturned in some places, making an abnormal mess of snow, soil, and ash; a few trees were thrown off from its original spots, some were rolled to their sides, some with its roots pointed skywards, while others were broken into nothing but splinters; she wasn't going to even start on the old playground, or rather, what was left of it.

 _At least she had the decency to leave this tree standing._ She thought to herself. It wasn't the first time she and Kira had a fight like this. The two siblings never did see eye to eye after day one of meeting each other. The youngest Baba Yaga tended to keep her distance from the living, but when she did go close, she'd love to mess with their routines; misplacing things, walking through them, an accidental trip; those were okay to her. But Kira's sense of humor... was much darker than hers. If she could, she would take great pleasure just watching someone scream in agony as she would use her iron teeth to bite deep into their flesh, adult or child, she showed no preference to who she would perform these misdeeds too.

A sadistic cannibal, that was what Natasha suspected Kira was in her previous living life.

The witch began to subconsciously rub her injured arm. Decorating her arm was a horrid burn, the blackened outer skin was already beginning to crack, revealing the raw skin underneath it, a mixture of pus and blood seeped out from popped blisters. _That's going to take some time to heal._ Without meaning to, her mind rushed back to her sister's request.

"The Bogeyman, huh?"

Just what was her older 'sister' thinking of doing this time?

* * *

"Mother Nature?" Tooth's question came out as a mere whisper. Once again, the room was met with another of the Guardians' stunned silence.

"For what reason would she come to us for?" Bunnymund exclaimed. "She's already appointed herself as a neutral party."

"Well, that's not-" Manny began to explain, but was quickly cut off by Jack.

"Hold on just a sec. Who?" The Guardians turned to Jack, an unreadable expression glazed over their faces.

"She is like name." North attempted to clarify. "She is Mother of Nature. She watches over the Earth like how we watch over the children."

"And also, the person who should've mentored and guided you to be a winter spirit as she has done to the other season personifications." Manny added in. "But she disappeared before you even came to existence."

"Disappeared?"

"Yes, disappeared, Jack. You know, gone from existence; never seen for centuries; faded from reality."

"I understood him fine, kangaroo."

"Guys, now's not the time." Tooth flew in between the two myths. She turned back to Manny. "But, why now? Why has she appeared now? After disappearing for so long?"

"This is going to be hard." Manny muttered to himself. "But well, let's just say that we need her. There's a growing negative force that wants to get rid of me. In all honesty, I brought this upon myself." The glowing man looked down, a guilty look plagued his features. "Like you have said, Mother Nature has been... non-existent for the past few centuries. And I have an inkling as to why I haven't been able to detect her for a long time."

He looked over at Jack, who noticed this and began shifting uncomfortably at his spot.

"You're not saying it has to do something with me?" Jack asked, he could hear a certain bunny snicker. "I swear it was not my fault."

"No, it most definitely not your fault." Manny laughed. "But it has to do something with your sudden appearance." He took a breath. "Jack, you already know that you were a human before you were Jack Frost. But what you don't know was that before you were a human, you were already guardian." At the mention of that, Bunnymund began to choke on his own spit. The flustered fairy beside him tried her best to calm him down.

"What?" North voiced for Jack. Everyone was just as astounded as he was.

 _Today is just full of surprises, huh._ Jack thought to himself.

"You don't remember, you probably never will." The Man in the Moon continued. "But your first life began as Nightlight. You were _my_ Guardian. I'll try to summarize it short, but you were appointed by my parents to watch over me. You did a very good job at that, defending me from Pitch Black, but it resulted in the both of you being thrown into the human world. I won't tell you the whole story, maybe some other time. But as a result of being in the human world, you eventually turned into a human and at the same time, you forgot your identity as Nightlight. While, you were human, I had lost all trace of you being alive at all. But when you drowned in that lake, I found you and reappointed you with another name, Jack Frost."

"But what has that got to do with Mother Nature?" Bunnymund blurted. Sandy, who had been silent the whole time (of course), nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I'm getting there. See, I believe that Mother Nature went through the same phenomenon as Jack did."

"You're saying that she became human?" The Easter Bunny asked dubiously.

"Yes."

"For almost 400 years? That's quite a feat for a human to do, ain't it?"

"Well, I'm not really sure of the process of becoming human and whatnot. But I believe that if she isn't revived as Mother Nature, she will keep being born into a human body. It took me a little more than a century to find Jack after he disappeared as Nightlight."

"So, you found her, da?"

"That's what I believe." Manny nodded. "But I'm not as familiar to Mother Nature as I was to Nightlight. So, I needed some of you to clarify for me if it was really her."

"You mean, you doubt your own choice?" Tooth questioned.

"Here comes the real problem." Manny sighed. "I realized that at one point, a certain negativity beginning to grow in the human world, I guess you could say I was scared of this. It was something I haven't seen before, even now, I still don't know what it is. So, after finding out Jack's situation, I tried to find Mother Nature, since that was Earth is of her expertise. I have tried numerous times to revive who I thought was Mother Nature, and well, I chose poorly. I was too rash in trying to find her. The excitement got to my head, and I'm ashamed to say that my lack of judgement had caused me to come to this point." A question mark appeared above Sandy's head, which Manny noticed. "Through the course from when I renamed Jack 'till now, I had 'chose' three woman to be Mother Nature. I believed that if they had agreed to the name, that they were the rightful namesakes, since Jack had no refusal whatsoever. However, all three of them declined. But recently, I had found one who accepted, this time, I wanted you to see if that was indeed Mother Nature."

"Why didn't you name them something else like you did for Jack?" Asked Tooth.

"I thought it was only right to name her the same. I wasn't quite sure why, but this is all very new to me as it is to you all." Manny answered. "It was a miracle altogether for Jack to return being a Guardian. His case was the first time I had seen such things happening. Even now, I'm not quite sure how it works either."

"Another question, Manny, is ok?" North asked. He continued on when he saw Manny wave his hand in permission. "What happened to the three woman? And, why them?"

"Hm? That's interesting, I thought you would've known them by now, or at least have a hint of them, North. Since all three of them do live in your homeland."

"Shostakovich! It can't be!" Realization hit him.

"The three woman that I mistakenly named Mother Nature are now known as Baba Yaga." Once again, Manny's face shone of guilt. "I created what is known as the most terrifying witches in Russian tales."

"And this is where we go back to the real question as to why you are all here." Manny spoke a little louder. The Guardians looked back and forth each other, Tooth still looked a little light-headed, Jack was flabbergasted to finding out a new piece of his past, Bunny was dubious, and Sandy stood in confusion, only North seemed to have a clear grasp of the situation. "The conclusion that I've come to, my recent choosing for Mother Nature, has been kidnapped by Baba Yaga."

* * *

"Idet koz a rogataya, za malymi re byatami! Nozhkami top! Top!" _The Horned Goat is coming, To small children! Her legs go clop! Clop!_

"Where am I? What are you doing to me? Let me go, now!"

"Glazkami khlop! Khlop!" _Her eyes go blink! Blink!_

"What is going on? Who are you? I only played along because I thought this was a prank!"

"Kto kashki ne yest, molochka kto ne p"yet-togo" _To those who don't eat porridge, to those who don't drink milk._

"Am I really dead? Stop! Please stop!

"Zabodayu, zabodayu, zabodayu!" _To those children she will go, stab, stab, stab!"_

"I'm not Mothe-"


	5. Chapter 5

Guardian Witch

Rise of the Guardians

Chapter 5

* * *

"So, right after he tells us what to do, he leaves us to do it." Jack complained. "Aren't we Guardians of children? What does this have to do with children?"

After explaining the situation to the Guardians, Manny left to go back to the moon, leaving the others to figure out their plan for the rescue mission of the nature spirit. All the Guardians had gathered in North's personal work room, on North's work table, a map of Russia was spread across of it, a pondering Russian looking over it. Tooth fluttered between talking to her fairies and studying the map with North. Bunny stood beside the Russian man studying the map as well, but half of his attention was towards the unpainted egg in his hand. Jack hunched over his staff, a tired expression on his face. Too many things had happened all at once; Jamie leaving, Mother Nature's existence, Manny's sudden appearance, him being Nightlight; the flood of emotions that ran through him exhausted his mentality.

"Must be important, for Manny to come down to tell us." North thought out loud, ignoring Jack's whinings. Which the winter spirit took great offense to.

"Something really must've scared him to make this into such a big deal." Tooth continued North's thoughts. Jack slumped against his staff, a resigned expression burned across his face.

"Is no one listening to me?"

"I thought mosquitoes don't live in the North Pole, why do I hear one buzzing in my ear?" Bunnymund scratched his ears.

"Knock it off, you overgrown rodent."

"Sandy, you got any bug spray?"

"Baba Yaga... that is no joking matter. If Baba Yaga really took Mother Nature... but what reason?" North asked out loud in attempt to break the growing conflict.

"Are they really that terrible?" Bunnymund questioned. "They can't be that bad if Manny mistook them to be Mother Nature."

"No, they are as bad as Pitch." North told the bunny. "It confuses me, what did Man in Moon see in them that made him choose to make them Mother Nature? But if Manny really believes that this is threat to him and us, then the children might also be in danger."

"Whatever the case, we've got someone to save." Bunny waved the question away.

"We'll need to know what they're like, so we know what we're dealing with. Could you tell us more about them, North?" Tooth asked. North let out a soft hum before signalling to a nearby yeti, who quickly disappeared before returning just as fast with a large, leather-bound, book in his hand.

"Baba Yaga, they are three witches. I have not met them before, but according to stories," North took the book and began to flip through the pages before stopping and showing a picture in the book to them, "they are very scary."

The picture showed a withered woman with goblin-like ears, a pointed nose, a pair of clouded white eyes, coarse, white hair, and bony hands. She was seated atop a giant mortar with a broom in her left hand and an unusually large pestle in her right hand. An expression of bloodlust was glued over her face.

"That's a bloody witch alright."

"All three of them look like that?" Jack grimaced. "How do they not give themselves nightmares?"

"Like I said, I have never seen them." North shrugged his shoulders. He turned the book around to glance through the pages. "Is typical witch thing. Old, terrifying, ugly, and eats children."

"What!?"

"Calm down, Jack, that was only joke. Stories, are not always truthful. They were only made to scare. They have never eaten children before." The Russian man answered. "But I do know, that they can control specific earth elements with great skill, as good as Mother Nature."

"Powerful, right off the bat, huh?" Jack voiced.

"But, is only rumor... maybe." North muttered the last word, unsure of whether or not they were as powerful as they were said to be.

"Crigey, where do we even start?" Bunny glanced over the map. "How do we even find one of 'em?"

"It has a been long time since there has been news of Baba Yaga." North stroked his beard thoughtfully. "But I have idea as to where one might be." North pointed at a dot on the map marked Tishina. "There are rumors of 'ghosts' there. No one goes near it. Is perfect place for witch to live."

"So, you're just basing on a rumor? Can you believe this, Sandy?" Bunny turned to the Guardian of dreams, who only shrugged in response.

"That's probably our best lead so far. Since we know about nothing about them." Tooth defended North.

Bunny only let out a groan and a soft mutter referring to North's belly.

* * *

"Eto pizrak! Eto pizrak!" _It's the ghost! The ghost!_

Natasha clicked her tongue as she watched the group of five Russian teenagers run around aimlessly in the park. One teen in particular had climbed up a tree in attempt to run from the 'ghost' he had seen just seconds ago. The 'ghost' he had seen was nothing but a thin sheet of plastic that Natasha had waved in front of his face. Of course, imagination had overtaken the kid, common sense was nowhere in his head to tell him that the 'ghost' was nothing but fictional. The spirit witch had only wanted to see how the daring teenagers would react if she scared them a bit, she was bored after all. But the overreaction was something she did not want to deal with. All she could do now was to watch the brats run and scream in the most obnoxious way possible.

"Could those girls scream any louder?" The pale-haired spirit muttered to no one in particular. Natasha eyed the two girls who were huddled together under the bottom of a slide. Both clothed in winter clothings, their faces were void of any makeup, and their hair were plainly done. Two other males had run off further and hid behind two trees. "When are they leaving?"

She let out a groan, realizing that the teenagers probably weren't going to leave so soon with their minds still full on paranoia. Should she scare them some more? To get them moving? Or would they just stay as paralyzed as they all were.

"Ugh, human teenagers are the worst. They just can't leave this place alone." Though she said that aloud, the witch had no intention of getting rid of them herself. She merely waited for them to gain some sense to leave on their own. As of the moment, she just had to deal with their overbearing cowardice. She turned to walk away from the wailing group and retreated to her tree. The willow was as barren as usual, how the dead tree could still withstand Russia's cold weather and her sister's violent mood swings was beyond the witch's comprehension, but she was thankful of such a phenomenon.

She had forgotten why, but she had developed a rather strong liking towards the tree. Perhaps it was because she had established it as her home, but still, it was a tree.

Her fingers strayed across right arm, slightly brushing against the burn. It was healing, a few days of rest had done its trick, but it was still in bad shape. Natasha made a mental note to repay Kira for this later, with much deserved interest.

Natasha looked up to see if the group of teenagers had finally left her turf, instead she saw that they had gathered together again and were avidly talking amongst themselves. This perked the female spirit's curiosity. What had them so animated all of a sudden? As quietly as she could, she paced towards the group to listen in to their conversation. They all seemed to be looking at the tallest male of the group who was holding something in front of him.

He was carrying a box of matches.

* * *

"Hey, I remember that." Jack said pointing down towards a grey street. "That water fountain's real fun to play with. Especially when someone's drinking out of it."

"So it's not just my life you make miserable, eh?" Though his voice held a tone of insult, there was an apparent waver in his voice. His nervousness was expected as it often appeared every time the Guardians embarked somewhere on North's sleigh.

"Aw, are you jealous, Bunny?"

"Hardly." The Easter Bunny deadpanned.

"What exactly are we looking for again?"

"We aren't looking for anything." Tooth answered Jack calmly. "That is, we don't have to, right, North?."

"I know, it's here, I know." North exclaimed.

"Are you sure, mate? Maybe your stomach is out of commission." Bunnymund snickered. "Face it, North, we're lost."

"We can't be that far off. We did follow the map, didn't we?" Tooth asked, hoping to shed some light to their predicament. North only grunted in response. Not expecting that reaction, the Sister of Flight let out a soft but dejected sigh. "Then, what do we do now?"

The Guardians all knew that they couldn't give up the search, but looking blindly over the entire scale of Russia for a witch would be difficult. True that they had done tasks more arduous than this, but this involved a witch, or witches, who probably already had the right mind to hide from them skillfully.

"You know what, let's take a break and play 'I spy'." Jack suggested. He spun the staff in his hand before hopping onto the edge of the sleigh to look below the ground, ignoring Bunnymund's groans of refusal. "Ok, I spy something with my little eye... something beginning with... 's'."

Sandy raised his hand enthusiastically and Jack called him with the same excitement. Immediately, patterns of snowflakes appeared in sandy formations above the Sandman's head.

"Snow! Of course, Sandy! You're good at this." The winter spirit congratulated his golden friend. Bunnymund only let out another disgruntled groan while the other two Guardians chuckled at the Guardian of Fun's antics. "Okay, Sandy, your turn."

Sandy looked out of the sleigh thoughtfully, his hand rubbed his chin, emphasizing that he was playing the game seriously. He turned back to Jack, a smile, that closely resembled more of a smirk, painted over his face. Sandy pointed above his head where the letter 't' appeared above his head.

"Ooh! Is it a tiger?" Tooth asked excitedly.

"You have to be able to see it, Tooth." Jack laughed.

"Oh, right." Tooth waved her hand and tapped her forehead. "Then, maybe, tree?"

Sandy nodded his head and gave a thumbs-up at Toothiana.

"Ok, ok, my turn, um..." The fairy flitted around the sleigh, taking quick glances at the scenery below from every side of the sleigh. Her face lit after a few moments only to suddenly wash over by dark expression.

"I found her!" She shouted pointing out from the side of the sleigh. With the sudden declaration, North quickly made a turn at the direction she had pointed to. The mood quickly shifted from a playful one to one of seriousness. All Guardians were quick to regain their sense of alarm and began to look at the focus of North and Tooth's attention. A large, gray park was ahead of them, and in the middle of it was a group of teenagers running away from something. In the direction opposite of where they were headed, a lone girl with white hair stood surrounded by a growing inferno.

They had found Baba Yaga.

* * *

 _Those stupid teenagers. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! What good was it to burn down an entire park!?_ The witch thought frantically to herself. Still, in the midst of her panic, a small voice in the back of her mind wondered how in the world a fire could grow so big so fast in such a cold country. _Damn them, those idiot teens!_

 _I have no choice..._ Natasha voiced in her head. She lifted her good arm and swept it across a portion of fire. Immediately, the earth below the fire rumbled and turned itself over, covering the flames with ease. _That works._ With another sweeping motion, another piece of land turned over, smothering the flames above it. With only one hand available to control the ground, the fire was spreading faster than she can put out. She cursed at her own predicament, she had to use all of her attention on the fire to prevent from spreading further. She had enough of fire from her fight from Kira, why in the world did she have to deal with this again?

Occupied from trying to put out the flames around her, she failed to notice the sounds of a sleigh landing behind her some ways off. It was only until a flash of blue zoomed across her vision that her attention shifted to the sudden appearances. Natasha watched shellshocked as the blue blur quickly dampened the fire with blasts of white and leaving a coat of ice on the burnt ground. In only a few seconds, the fire had been completely extinguished by the mystery person. The said person was a male with white hair that spiked to the side, he wore a blue hoodie and held a curved wooden staff in one hand. The boy turned towards Natasha, striking blue eyes met her pale lifeless ones. He pointed his staff at her, confused expression glazed over both of their faces.

"You're a witch?"


	6. Chapter 6

Guardian Witch

 _Rise of the Guardians_

Chapter 6

* * *

" _You're a witch?"_

"Izvinite?" _Excuse me?_ Natasha clearly understood him. But because of the strange presence and equally strange question that came with it, her mother tongue had slipped out before she could translate it.

Natasha, though still confused, was quick to recover from the shock. She eyed the male in front of her closely while also paying attention to noticeable presence of four others behind her. She could tell that they weren't the normal humans that would walk in to the park. They were more... like her. Other than Kira and her other sister, she really had no experience in meeting other people who could see her.

She took a risk and turned to look at the four mysterious figures behind her. A short, golden man with a gentle expression stood, but his eyes held a suspicious caution as they watched over her. An abnormally large, gray rabbit stood on its hind legs, a leather holster is slung around its left shoulder, on its wrists were leather brazens with an orange stone set in it, and in each hand was a boomerang. Another strange being caught her eye, though it was a rather beautiful one, she couldn't really tell what sort of being it was. It had green, blue, and yellow feathers covering her entire body but its face, and on its back were three pairs of transparent wings. Perhaps a fairy of some sort. The last figure was a tall and burly man with long white hair and a beard. He wore a red coat with fur edgings and a black fur hat on his head, in his hands he wielded swords. It seemed that everyone but him seemed to give off a foreign smell.

"Vy russkiy. Kak interesno." _You're Russian. How interesting._ "No ostal'nyye kompanii ne." _But the rest of your company aren't._

"Uh, North, a little translation would be nice." The rabbit nudged the Russian man. Natasha's eyes met with the Russian's, who she now knew as 'North'. North did not answer the rabbit, instead he continued staring back at the girl.

"Who are you?" Natasha asked, calm enough to speak in English. "And what do you want?"

Natasha could feel a rise in tension in the atmosphere. She watched the group closely, seeing that they were both fervently looking back and forth at each other. She could tell, they had a reason to come here, and seeing that some of them were armed, it was probably not for a good one. Natasha wondered if she would be able to fend them off with one arm disabled.

Her ears perked up as she heard movement from behind her. She quickly turned in time to see the white-haired boy shoot an icy blast from his staff. Natasha raised her hand on instinct, causing the ground in front of her to rise rapidly to defend her from the blast.

"I thought you were controlling the fire?" A voice sounded from above. She looked up and saw that the boy had managed to stand over the suspended ground. _Can he fly?_ She used her available arm and swiped it in a downward motion, forcing the ground back to its original position. Her suspicions proved true when she saw the spirit still hovering in the air. Perhaps, if she got her broom, she could fly after him.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she caught wind of a buzzing sound from behind. Thinking quickly, she swept her hand across the air, making the floor below her slide away to the side before the fairy-like creature flew straight into the spot she was just in.

 _She's fast._

Natasha prepared herself to strike the fairy creature with a few loose rocks from the ground but stopped when she sensed something peculiar from the earth below her. She dodged just in time before a hole appeared at the very spot she once stood, the overgrown rabbit jumped up from it, throwing one of his boomerangs in her direction. She cursed inwardly, as the object grazed just a bit of her hair as it barely missed her. She dodged it again when it came flying back to its owner.

"You missed, cottontail!" She heard the white-haired boy shout from above her. Natasha took it as a cue to jump to the side, dodging another blast of white from the boy. She whipped her arm upwards, sending a loose chunk of rock from the ground towards the flying spirit, successfully hitting him in the face. It fazed him a little, but failed to knock him out; at least she got something.

"Like you're doing any better, mate." She heard the rabbit scoff.

 _What is wrong with these people? What do they want?!_

Her thoughts were cut short, quite literally, as two swords came swinging in her direction. She moved out of the way and flicking her good arm sideways, calling out from the dirt from the ground to blind him temporarily. She heard him grunt as he tried to rub the dirt from his eyes. Natasha quickly swung around and picked her foot of the ground, pulling a portion of the earth with her sole, and kicked the man away from her.

Satisfied when he did not get up, she turned her attention towards the remaining four. She took a quick glance at the golden man, he hadn't made a move yet and she was suspecting he was going to attack. He seemed to be charging a ball of sand in his palms. Natasha smirked when he noticed that she had set her eyes on him. Whatever he was preparing, she wasn't going to give him time to use it. She stomped her foot against the ground, causing the earth to ripple and crack towards the golden man until a pillar of rock emerged suddenly from the ground in front the man, hitting him straight in his middle.

"Sandy!" She heard someone yell. The gold man let go the orb of golden sand, throwing it in Natasha's general direction. She dodged the sphere easily before it hit a tree and broke apart.

Paying too much attention to her success against the two, she failed to notice the speeding fairy. The fairy was flying in a tornado-like manner towards her, her wings sliced at Natasha's outstretched arm as the Russian girl attempted to protect herself.

 _Those wings are sharp._

Pain shot through her both her arms, from the newly made cuts and the old burn from Kira, Natasha knew she was in trouble. Ignoring the stabbing feeling from both arms, she summoned her broom, which quickly came to her side. She hopped on to it and began to fly away. So focused on trying to get away from the five beings, she failed to notice another ball of golden sand being thrown her way. The next thing she knew, all had become dark.

* * *

After seeing the illustration of Baba Yaga North had shown him, Jack had expected exactly that to be the image of the witch. It was a total shock to him when he saw a girl who looked like she was 16. She was the exact opposite of what he expected. His reaction, in his opinion, was completely appropriate.

When she had questioned the Guardians as to why they were in her territory, Jack took the opportunity of her turning her back towards him to attack. He was surprised when quickly reacted quite extravagantly. Another expectation of her was thrown out the window as she had manipulated the huge wall of earth before him. He had thought that she could control fire, being surrounded by flames when Tooth spotted her. _How did the fire get there then? Did those teenagers make it?_ Jack thought to himself.

She proved to be a rather tough opponent, she was mainly using one hand to control the ground and she was fending off all five of the Guardians at the same time. Jack would be lying to say he wasn't impressed by the witch's determination, no doubt, the other Guardians thought that as well. But even with her level of skill, there was no way she could handle all of them for long. Soon enough, Sandy was able to knock her out with his second shot of dreamsand as she tried to escape. Tooth was quick enough to catch the girl before she could hit her head on the ground.

"I have to admit, that sheila was a tough one."

"Looks like we agree on something, can you believe it." Jack stated.

"It seems that she was injured before we came." The fairy had the witch cradled on her lap as Tooth examined the burnt arm. "And I don't think it was from the fire that we saw."

A silence engulfed upon the Guardians, they were all sharing the same thought. For some reason, they couldn't see the unconscious girl as a witch to be feared. Though she had just displayed a brief yet fearsome amount of strength, the fact that she appeared to be only a mere teenager irked them. Perhaps the influence of Jamie and his friends played a role in this.

"We must bring her to the Pole." North broke the silence. He cleared his throat before continuing on. "We're going to ask her a lot of questions."

* * *

"My, my. Just as pathetic as I last left you." Kira smirked at the figure in front of her.

A mesh of black sand swirled slowly before her, twirling around into an orb-like matter. Long strings of sand had tried to reach out towards her, as if trying to pull her into the mess of black. But before it even touched her, it shrank back almost apologetically.

She walked closer towards the sand, dragging a huge sack behind her. The sand began to stir restlessly, it was uneasy towards the old woman, but there was something in the sack that it really desired. Kira, with her free hand, reached out towards the black sand. As her hand approached it, the sand swirled away from her contact, creating a hole right through its core. Another dark figure began to form inside the sand. Its body was entangled with strings of black sand, its head completely covered with the dark matter. Kira grabbed hold of the figure and began to pull it out. Immediately, the sand let go of the figure, untangling itself from the figure's head before shrinking into itself as the old woman pulled out. She threw the figure onto the ground unceremoniously and threw the sack towards the black sand. Delighted at its reward, it began to expand once more and wrap itself around the sack. It ripped through the sack's cloth before heaving out a terrified young woman. She let out a single scream before the sand collapsed on top of her, silencing her almost immediately.

"That should do it." The eldest Baba Yaga grinned wickedly. "You look terrible." Kira turned towards the figure. The figure was starting to stir, his hands reached up to clutch his head. He let out a pained grunt before stumbling onto his feet. The black figure turned to look at the elderly lady beside him. The woman was merely half of his height, yet she gave off more of an intimidating presence than he. Kira eyed the male figure, making sure to give him every bit of mockery she saw fit. After all, she did save him from his pathetic stupor just seconds ago.

"How was your nap," Kira asked tauntingly, "Pitch Black?"


	7. Chapter 7

Guardian Witch

 _Rise of the Guardians_

Chapter 7

* * *

Author's Note: Hoi! What's this? An update? Gahh! Sorry for the extreme writer's block. It was so bad, I wanted to quit this story entirely. But then, something stirred and I decided to try this again. I realized I've accumulated some reviews and follows for this story and I'm honestly quite surprised. I guess a little 'thank you' is in order.

( o w o) -[Thank youu~]

Anyway, concerning the reviews;

Some of you have pointed out that there are some holes in regards to The Guardians of Childhood and I apologize. I've honestly never read the novels and didn't really know about it until prior to brainstorming this story. So, what I know from the books are from wiki. I apologize if it irks people -I empathize with you I really do- but I hope you can excuse me for now. Though, I wouldn't mind a little insight here and there. /wink wink hint hint

Ok, I won't hold you for long. Enjoy! (maybe..?)

* * *

" _How was your nap," Kira asked tauntingly, "Pitch Black?"_

"Truthfully, it could've been better." Was all the Nightmare King could answer. "How did you do it?'

"Do what?" Kira asked even though she knew what he was referring to.

Pitch twitched at the shrill, mocking tone; he found it not at all amused to being played around like that. Especially by her. The Bogeyman turned to look at his old 'prison'. What was once his loyal nightmares had turned against him that day and trapped him a seemingly eternal slumber. Stuck in a place where he could neither awake nor control his dreams, the king of nightmares had fallen into his own nightmare. He could see the swirl of sand that once surrounded him had taken a new hostage. The figure was so completely covered, he couldn't even make out a distinct shape.

"And _who_ is in _that_?"

"One question at a time!" The witch feigned exasperation. She waved her hands above her head in an airy manner, as if too much was asked of her and she had become sick. "One cannot so insistent for answers."

The man could only growl. Out of all the creatures and legends of evil, it was this one in particular that he couldn't stand the most. When he had first met the witch, he surely thought they would've gotten along well. Their sadistic natures were both to par and their sense of morale, or rather lack of, was pit bottom. But her annoying nature of superiority ranged higher than his. Honestly, just who did she think she was, thinking herself above the King of Nightmares.

"Someone woke up at the wrong side of the bed this morning." Kira cackled wildly.

"Enough!" Pitch bellowed. Kira silenced, but she continued to grin wildly. Oh, he definitely despised her.

"Clearly," Pitch breathed, "you're doing this for a reason. Freeing me. I still don't know how you did it."

"So you want me to talk now?" Kira smirked. Pitch only snarled in response. "Aha~ I'll tell you, don't get mad. Yes, I had a reason. And that reason was that I needed you alive."

"You're not going to tell me?"

"Oh I'll tell you. But I have to gather up the rest of my allies."

"You had others in mind? For what?"

"Like I said, I'm not telling you yet, be patient boy." Funny, he was older than she by a number a years, though he didn't look it. "I'm going to need my sisters for this. I've tried to ask them before freeing you. But they've both declined. However, if you're present, I'm sure they'll accept."

Another thing Pitch hated her for. She was never thorough, never quite as meticulous as he when it came to dark schemes. Careless and impulsive to her desires, he couldn't stand it.

"As for freeing you, it wasn't that hard. All I did was find a substitute and it let you go."

"A substitute?"

"Yes. Though, it has to be someone of 'equal' caliber to you, so I couldn't grab some random wandering spirit or human. And it also had to be someone who has a fear that exceeds yours."

"Then, who was it you substituted me for?"

Just when Pitch thought Kira's grin couldn't be anymore wider, the old witch smiled a smile that could possibly rip her face in two.

"Why, it seems that I found a certain candidate." Kira clapped her hands together gleefully. " _He_ calls her 'Mother Nature'."

* * *

Her head hurt. Her arms hurt.

Everything. Hurt.

She hadn't asked for anything to change in her peaceful, non-existent life. Why then, were such things happening to her?

Natasha could hear voices, though they sounded very far away. Besides the numbing pain she felt everywhere in her body, she could feel that her arms were bound. There also seemed to be something wrapped around her eyes, that would explain why she couldn't see anything. Unintentionally, she let out a grunt of displeasure. The voices that seemed to be drawing closer stopped.

"... awake...?" The voices were clearer now.

"Do we... but..."

"What!? ... cottontail?"

"How about... shut up."

"... both of you... stop... swords... cut you."

This time, she snickered. The voices took notice of this and halted their discussion before ripping away her blindfold.

"Do continue your conversation, it was getting interesting." Natasha gave a lopsided smile.

"Sorry to disappoint you then, sheila, but show's over." The rabbit tapped the ground irately.

Natasha shifted around to sit up properly. The pain had begun to wash from her body and was more of an ache now, it was something she could deal with.

"I'm not one to be familiar with etiquette or manners or whatever, but I'm sure this is far from polite." Natasha drawled before looking at her arms. They had bounded her, but she was surprised to find them wrapped in clean bandages. "... What?"

"We wrapped your arms for you." The green fairy creature told her.

"What for?" She asked in a monotone voice.

"Uh... what else do you think?" The white haired boy cocked an eyebrow.

Natasha's eyebrow twitched in irritation. She knew, that maybe she had to feel a little appreciative for their actions. But years of living alone might have dulled that judgement. She did not count the occasional visits from Kira or the even rarer meetings with her second Baba Yaga sibling as company. She had not experienced kindness in a long while.

 _Kindness._

 _ **Kindness.**_

Kindness, was something she was not used to anymore.

And she did not appreciate it.

She felt annoyed, irritated, humiliated even. Her kidnappers, the opponents she had just been recently defeated by, were showing _kindness_ to her; to her, they were _pitying_ her. She gritted her teeth at this, her eyes flashing dangerously at the five figures in front of her. To say she was angry was an understatement, she was fuming.

"You _dare,_ " she seethed, "you _dare_ to pity me?"

"Does it irritate you?" The big bearded man asked her in russian.

"Does it irritate me?" She said through gritted teeth. "Haven't you had enough by defeating me? Now you're mocking me? Not just by tying me up but by treating my wounds?"

"If it makes you feel better, I tried to stop them of such heresy." He deadpanned.

Natasha clicked her tongue in disgust.

"Surely, their lack of 'manners' aren't the first thing on your mind. Aren't you curious as to why you are brought here?" He raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little bit curious about why we came after you in the first place? Do you know who we are?

"I'm guessing it's important." She muttered. "In all honesty, I don't give a damn who you are. How about you just get this over with. Whatever you want me for, get it over with. I'm tired."

"We are the Guardians." The big man announced. "I am the Guardian of Wonder. You can call me North.

Natasha said nothing. Her eyes trailed to the other Guardians, eyeing a particular blue-hooded one for a second longer. _So that's who I have to blame all those snowy winters for._ She growled at the boy before turning her attention back to the legendary Saint Nicholas. She had to admit, he did seem a little more intimidating now that she knew who he was. But then again, she did manage to knock him out during the fight. However, there was no earth she could use to her advantage and he still had his swords fastened to his sides.

"And what is it that the legendary Guardians want with me? The youngest Baba Yaga?"

"How about you answer that for us?"

* * *

Jack began to shift uncomfortably, but quickly fixed himself. A stony glare hid his unsure interior. He watched as the girl's body gave a shiver, out of fear or anger, he didn't know.

" _You_ dare _," she seethed, "you_ dare _to pity me?"_

He shook at her icy tone, which was ironic considering that he was the personification of winter. He swore he heard her growl at him. No, it wasn't fear that he was feeling from this girl, but there was most definitely something off about her. That was it, he felt that there was something wrong with her being here. She most definitely didn't belong here.

"Enough with the Russian!" Bunny cut the two Russians off. He stomped towards the young witch, boomerang in hand, and pointed it towards her. "Where'd you take Mother Nature?"

The girl silenced and turned to look at Bunny. Her face showed on emotion, but her eyes shown that of curiosity. A flash of familiarity shown in her eyes before it was replaced with amusement. Though, Jack did get to see one of her eyes twitching in annoyance.

"Mother Nature?" She repeated the name. "He's still going on about that? How pathetic."

"He?" Bunny raised an eyebrow."

"Why, your precious moon of course." The girl gave a one-sided smile. "Hmm... so he keeps secrets from you?"

At the corner of Jack's eye, he could see Sandman puffing out smoke-like figures of sand from his ears, he looked at North and saw his entire figure tensing, Tooth became a little more jittery, and Bunny was... well...

"Watch that mouth of yours, sheila." He fumed. His eyes burned through hers. She only stared back with a sort of sadistic glee.

"I made the giant bunny angry." Her voice was monotonous, yet the way she eyed the rabbit told him she was openly mocking him.

"Bunny." North called the Easter Bunny. "Stand back."

Bunny reluctantly backed up. He had enough sense knowing that him blowing up wouldn't do him any good here. They couldn't let her play around with them so easily.

"Look," The witch sat up a little straighter, a bored expression plastered across her face, "this Mother Nature you're looking for. I have no idea what you're talking about, how about you go try my second sister?"

"Don't waste our time." Bunny crossed his arms.

"You're wasting _mine_ , I'm just returning the favor."

"But you do know something related to the name 'Mother Nature', right?" Tooth asked the witch. The girl turned slowly to look at the fairy. Pale, lifeless eyes clashed with colorful, energetic ones. Tooth didn't seem to be disturbed by the young girl's careful stares towards her.

"Even if I did, there is no reason for me to tell you." The witch answered back. "If you want something from me, do me a favor and I'll repay you."

A disgruntled cough sounded from North. The Guardians turned to look at him, a stern expression plastered across his face, eyes shone of that of one with an idea. They all moved out of the room, making sure to close the door just a bit to prevent her from hearing them but to make sure she didn't try to escape.

"Right, so we might not have thought this through..." Tooth spoke.

"We seem to be pretty clueless as far as this storyline goes." Bunny muttered.

"What?" North quirked an eyebrow.

"I have no idea what I just said."

"That witch made you lose your mind huh, kangaroo?" Jack smirked.

"I'd shut my trap if I were you." Bunny threatened.

"Gentlemen, this is no time for fight." North told the two in the same jolly tone he had always used, though it was laced with a bit more seriousness in it this time. "We need answers..."

It then dawned on them of the lack of knowledge they currently knew. Where were they supposed to begin? Jack turned back to look at the girl. She seemed to be completely bored out of her mind.

 _If you want something from me, do me a favor and I'll repay you._

Bored, huh?

* * *

 _This is completely pointless._ Natasha shifted uncomfortably on the floor. It could've helped them if they had tied her to a relaxing chair instead of just leaving her bound on the floor, maybe she would've been more cooperative with their 'interrogation'. Her eyes travelled around the room, she hadn't gotten a chance to study where she was due to the earlier distractions. It was a room decorated with christmas lights and ornaments, the wooden floors were covered with red rugs and the walls were covered in ice and lit with candles. The entire room was littered with toys, some were finished while others were still yet to be completed. Natasha looked out of the window, snow. She had suspected, but now she was sure, they brought her to the North Pole. It was Guardian of Wonder's workshop.

 _As annoying as this is, I'd rather be here than dealing with Kira._ The witch let out a dejected sigh. As much as she hated her sister, she knew getting involved with the Guardians was another level of trouble for her. But this was a level at which she could tolerate. _I swear, if Kira is involved with this, I'm going to kill her. You know what, this is most definitely her fault. It has to be._

"New plan!" Natasha jumped at the voice. She turned to the door to see the young Guardian burst into the room. He had a huge smile plastered across his face, contrast to the utterly confused looks the other Guardians had.

"What?"


End file.
